The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

-- Baa uid a i i RR a ill 16 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, March 8, 1988 Norm Nicol, who lives in Robinglade near Seagrave, spent a fascinating month in Calgary for the Winter Olympics. Along with this collection of pins, he brought home some treasured memories of the Games. Norm works for IBM Canada, the company which supplied most of the computers for the Games. (see story for details) 'Scugog trio shares the Olympics first-hand Ski patroller Gary is still high after a month on Olympic slopes Garry Beechey still hasn't come back to earth. A week after returning from Calgary, where he was an official member of the Ski Patrol for the XV Olympic Winter Games, he is still on cloud nine. Just watching the Olympic events on video (his wife taped them while he was gone), is enough to bring tears to the 41 year old Blackstock man's eyes. It was an infinitely special time for Garry, and like the thousands of people who had roles to play at the Olympics, it's a time he will not soon forget. For the last 15 or 16 years, Gar- ry has been a member of the Ca- nadian Ski Patrol, working most- ly at Devil's Elbow. Three years ago he heard that the Ski Patrol was to be involved at the Calgary games, and along with a good friend, Bill Esdale of Markham, and approximately 700 others, he put his name in the hat to patrol at the games. Not that he really expected to be chosen--only 200 patrollers actu- ally went to Calgary. "It was one of those things where if I don't put my name in, I can't go, and if I do, I might," he says. Once his name was put in, "try- outs" began. Each year for two weeks, he left his wife and his young daughter and went to Cal- gary for training. Officials there really kept their eyes on hopefuls like Garry, "I guess they wanted to know how we react." And then, last May, he heard the good word--he was going to Calgary! "It didn't really sink in!" he says, about his initial reaction. But Calgary-bound he was in- deed, and on February 5, along with friend Bill, he flew west, where he would stay for 26 days. Ski Patrols are an extremely (Turn to page 17) Trouble-shooter had no trouble talking to skier Eddie the Eagle Norm Nicol arrived home from Calgary last week with a lot more than a collection of nifty la- pel pins. The Seagrave arca resident also brought back some memories of the 15th Winter Olympics that he will treasure for the rest of his life. He vividly remembers stand- ing at the bottom of the 90-metre ski jump talking to Britain's Ed- die Edwards, the "Flying Eagle" as he was named by the world's press. "Eddie is a very comical char- acter. I asked him if he was scared going off the 90 metre jump, and he just smiled and said no because he has special glasses that prevent him from seeing the ground." Eddie of course, became something of a celebrity at the Games, representing Britain in the ski jumping competitions, finish- ing dead last in both the 70 and 90 metre events, but doing what he set out to do: compete and stay alive. Mr. Nicol, a resident of Ro- binglade for the past several years, spent the entire month of Febru- ary in Calgary, helping to set up and maintain the more than 2,000 pieces of computer equipment in- stalled by IBM Canada for the Games. He's worked for IBM for more than 20 years, the last 13 as an instructor and trouble-shooter, a job which has taken him literally to the four corners of the earth. Working at the Olympics was a special challenge for Mr. Nicol and his colleagues from IBM. It's onc thing when a computer sys- tem fails in a large office building in downtown Toronto, but at the Olympics, if there was a failure, the entire world would soon learn about it. For example, the Olympic events involving times were all fed through computers which in turn relayed the results to the 100th of a second to the various television networks. Mr. Nicol worked mainly in the Olympic Park area, site of the bob-sled, luge and ski jumping events, and he admits he and the others were under a fair amount of pressure to make sure the systems functioned properly. "IBM would not want the world to know if there were any problems (with the computer sys- tems) he told the star in an inter- view last week, Thankfully, there were no ser- ious snags in thc computer sys- tems, other than small problems mostly the result of in-expericnce on the part of the many volun- teers who operated the computers fopr the Games. Mr. Nicol said his tcam of trouble-shooters had one "very bad moment" just minutes before the 90 metre ski jumping tcam cvent was set to start. The computer system sudden- ly went down. The problem was in a broad-band amplificr, and it took the team just eight minutes to get things working again, with two minutes to sparc before the event was Lo start. Making sure all the sophisti- cated computer systems were working properly was a demand- ing job, 12 hours each day for the entire Olympics, and it didn't leave too much time for other things. But working at the Olympic Park did allow him to see the sledding and ski jumping cvents and to meet many of the competi- tors. He also took in one of the hockey games and the gold medal performance in pairs dance skating (Turn to page 17) X ; winter Garg? Gary Beechey had a thrill of a lifetime when he spent a month out in Calgary working on the Ski Pa- trol for the Olympic Winter Games. Above, wearing his official Olympic Ski Patrol jacket, he cuddies two souvenliers-- stuffed replicas of Olympic mascots Hel- di and Howdy. See story for detalls. manufacturer of quality FIBREGLASS BATHTUBS and WHIRLPOOLS OPEN TO PUBLIC 80 VanEdward Drive SAT. 9 AM to 2 PM Port Perry 985-3100 Empres 5s Desi auto glass & trim 1ed. BH Windshields Bl Auto Upholstery BM Marine Upholstery BOAT TOPS - BOAT SEATS - MOORING COVERS HB Sunroofs BM Convertible Tops BM Vinyl Tops HB Safety Glass | CLAIMS $95. Off 139 WATER STREET -- PORT PERRY | With this Coupon .. Call for your appointment: 985- 8507 INSURANCE -- WE NOW SELL MOBILE CELLULAR PHONES --